‘King Charles has cancer, so did my dad. Here is how we can pray for him’

In recent weeks, Buckingham Palace released a statement to say that King Charles has been diagnosed with a form of cancer. The cancer was discovered during a recent treatment for an enlarged prostate, and he is now beginning regular treatments, postponing his public duties.

It has been said the cancer (which is not prostate cancer) was caught early. This must be a huge relief King Charles and his family as presumably there is a higher chance of the treatment being a success.

I remember just over fifteen years ago I was in New Zealand, when my parents emailed to say my dad had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. It was an aggressive form of the cancer, and the prognosis was not good.

I think of William and Harry hearing the news about their father, and the fear that they may be feeling,

I think of William and Harry hearing the news about their father, and the fear that they may be feeling, perhaps made worse from already having lost their mother, Princess Diana.

Just after I heard my own news I remember sitting in an auditorium of a Christian conference in Tauranga, three hours from Auckland, feeling very far from home, and trying to keep it together. There was a time of worship, and then the person leading the meeting said we should find people near us to pray with them about whatever was on our heart.

‘Oh don’t worry about that,’ she said. ‘I had stage four stomach cancer. I was supposed to die, and God healed me. 

I was on a mezzanine floor, and I slid down the bench to join a lady who was also sitting alone. She asked me what she could pray for, and I burst into tears, sharing about my dad’s health.

‘Oh don’t worry about that,’ she said. ‘I had stage four stomach cancer. I was supposed to die, and God healed me. If he did it for me, he can heal your dad too.’

Together we prayed, and I felt a weight of fear and anxiety lift of my shoulders. God brought me comfort, and it was a much needed boost of faith. A reminder that God is bigger than any doctor diagnosis, and he has the last word.

But also, he turns things around for our good, even suffering. I recently interviewed the quadriplegic, Joni Earekson Tada, who has been in a wheelchair for 57 years, and suffered breast cancer and many other serious ailments. She talks about suffering as a place where we can meet with God. (You can read the full interview in the April 2024 issue of Woman Alive)

We all know we are going to die one day, and being told we have cancer can help us to appreciate the life we do have, and restore things that need restoration in the time we have left.

So how can we pray for King Charles?

1. Let’s pray for Charles to meet with God at this time.

2. Pray that this health setback will remind him of his mortality, and set his heart and mind on a relationship with the God of heaven.

3. Pray that the news will bring his family together in love and unity, and that relationships with Harry and Megan will be restored.

4. Pray for healing, that the cancer would go, and that God would work it all together for good in our monarch’s life. 

My dad went on to baffle doctors and live twelve more years in relative good health, eventually dying from the cancer in 2020.

I pray that King Charles will have many more years in good health, and that this cancer diagnosis will remind him to prioritise what is really important.